MOSQUITO RAIDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25364, 23 October 1943, Page 5

MOSQUITO RAIDS

TARGETS IN GERMANY BAD WEATHER OVER LEIPZIG (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 22. Mosquitoes of the R.A.F. attacked targets in Western Germany last night. All the planes got back safely. Lancaster crews on Wednesday night had to fly through some of the worst weather encountered for a long time. The main target, Leipzig, fifth largest city in Germany, and one of the centres of the aircraft industry, is nearly 600 miles from England, and the weather began to close in as soon as the bombers reached the enemy coast. Scattered cloud grew thicker, and in some places reached a height of some five miles. Every now and then the crews ran into violent electrical storms. One sergeant said: “Big blue flames were darting round our gun barrels. The nose of our Lancaster was covered .with snow, which forced itself inside the front turret. At one point the front of the Lancaster lighted up, and there was a bright glow round our propellers and front windows.” The weather appears to have upset the German defences to a large extent. The searchlights were blocked by the clouds, which at times were so thick that the beams did not even light them up from below. Fighter* were up, and some of them dropped flares along the route. These glowed feebly in the clouds, and in such conditions it was very difficult for the fighters to find our bombers. Although some were attacked, most of them got through without seeing an enemy aircraft. The fighters, too, had a wide front to defend. Berlin—bombed by Mosquitoes—or half a dozen other town* might have been the target for the night. Partly because of the weather, .and partly perhaps because the Germans were in doubt until the last minute where the blow was going to fall, there were few fighters over Leipzig. One of the crews attacked last /tight by enemy fighters belonged to the Thunderbird Squadron of the R.C.A.F. group of the Bomber Command. They had to fight off seven separate attacks. Another Lancaster .had four combats, three of them within 17 minutes.

Leipzig, a city of over 700,000 inhabitants, has more than 20 firms making aircraft components. The Nazis have greatly developed the aircraft industry there in recent years, and since the war the large building where the Leipzig World’s Fair ussd to be held has been converted into workshops tor the repair of Junkers aero engines. The city is also a very important railway centre, one of the largest junctions on the supply route to the eastern front.

Apart from the central railway station, which is the largest in Europe, there are three important marshalling yards, each capable of handling thousands of wagons every 24 hours.